Grab Machine
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Fubuki tried to find an offering for Ryo’s friendship at the fair. He’d always been a strange child like that. Ryo/Fubuki.


Notes – For the gx_100. Set a few months post-GX.

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"Truce!"

Ryo blinked in confusion as the hand was held out to him. He frowned down at it, knowing Fubuki rarely took 'no' for an answer.

Regardless of this he knocked the hand to aside without shaking it.

"I don't see why it's worth the bother," he said flatly.

Now Fubuki's expression matched his own, which translated to Ryo wasn't going to get away that easily. When Fubuki put his mind to something, or someone in this case, it could be guaranteed that he wouldn't give up until he'd achieved his goal.

"Come on Ryo," he sighed, "I'm hardly going to pretend we're happily families and all that anymore, but we could at least be sociable now and then. Like it or not we're probably being going to see more of each other when Shou gets to the Pro Leagues."

He was greeted by silence. Not even Ryo's facial expression moved an inch.

"What do you want from me, an offering?" Fubuki went on.

Raising an eyebrow, Ryo replied, "That would be going a bit far."

Fubuki grinned.

It was one of the few things that could make Ryo worried.

"Did you hear me?" he said, trying to at least snap Fubuki back from whatever mad idea he was thinking of.

"Oh, yes. Sure," lied Fubuki, turning to walk off.

Striding after him, Ryo demanded, "Where are you going?"

"To get an offering, and don't object because I've got the perfect idea," Fubuki said slyly, making a dash for it before Ryo had the chance to respond or follow. The advantage of wearing shorts and a t-shirt over wearing several tons of leather was that shorts were generally more convenient for running in.

He couldn't run all the way from one end of Domino to the other though, so as soon as he could he found a bus to jump on. People gave him space as he sat down due to his brightly coloured clothing, which was a shame because Fubuki liked people a lot and could start a conversation with any random stranger he chose. There was something about people on buses and not wanting to talk to though. Maybe they were all going to work.

There was only one place in the city where he could find his offering. Well, probably more than one by now, but if you wanted the original cheap gift than you had to go to the original expensive theme park.

As the bus stopped for the third time, Fubuki saw the screen flash 'KaibaLand' and knew it was time to get off. He was the only person to get off, which figured since it was term time for most of those students. He'd been in the student category himself until quite recently.

Paying the man at the ticket booth, he headed in. He didn't get a day pass or pay for any of the extras, as he knew what he wanted and it wouldn't take that long. Once he made it past the lines for the roller coasters and other large attractions a sign directed him to the gift shop, but Fubuki didn't go there. Gift shops were for wimps. Fubuki got his presents properly.

Eventually he located the section of KaibaLand where those clever amusement park managers tried to get extra money out of their guests - the 'penny arcade'. Ever popular and ever full of people, various mugs tried to shoot wooden cut outs of Kuribohs or hoop Sonic Ducks to win prizes.

Cheap and cheerful. Fubuki loved it here.

After scanning around he located the prize that he wanted, in one of the infamous grab machines. Among a pile of other soft toys, this one was a perfect offering.

He checked the various pockets of his shorts for loose changed and managed to pull out a few coins. This would be a walk in the park for him, so to speak. Back in the day he was really good at these machines. Or at least he thought he was. In truth he'd been just as bad at them as everyone else, but his mother was such a soft touch that she'd kept giving him change until he'd won. She'd never told him that.

Perhaps she should have done, because by the time Fubuki had spent all the change and broken into a note via the nearest vender he was really started to feel disheartened that he'd lost his touch.

If anything he reasoned with himself that he was at least edging the thing closer and closer to where he wanted it to be. Mindlessly he inserted another coin.

Over by another counter he was watched with interest by two of KaibaCorp's top employees. Normally they were kept close to Mr. Kaiba, but today he had dismissed them early so they'd come here to get some air until he undoubtedly needed them again.

Fuguta, the one with brown hair, leaned closer to Isono and said, "How long has that boy been here for?"

"About two hours," replied Isono, checking his watch.

"Those machines are rigged aren't they?"

"Yeah."

They watched him for a while longer, silently making bets with each other upon when he'd lose his temper and start kicking the machine. But he didn't. He didn't even stop; he just seemed to get more disappointed with each failure.

"He's not going to leave until he gets it," said Fuguta, walking away from where he was stood over to the 'staff only' section of the games area. Isono followed him out of habit.

Everything in KaibaCorp was hi-tech or virtual, often both. Even the traditionally low-tech machines of a fair ground, while they kept their original appearance, were connected to a computer main frame. As the two men checked it over the computer connected to Fubuki's grab machine they saw that it had been rigged to give a winning grab once every ten turns. Considering how long Fubuki had been there for it was obvious how bad he was at this.

They exchanged glances, knowing it wasn't their place, but the boy was just too pitiful to ignore. Isono typed in to set the machine to have a guaranteed win ratio. They both waited for a few moments. Then…

"Yes! I knew I had the magic touch!" Fubuki whooped from outside, then they heard his sandals crunching across the gravel as he ran away. When he was gone they set the machine back to its original stats. What a strange boy.

At the other end of Domino Ryo had just managed to get Fubuki out of his mind. Whatever he was planning it didn't seem likely to affect Ryo's intentions for the rest of the day so he carried on with his work. By the time that it had hit one o'clock he decided to go to bed. His thoughts free of Fubuki.

The next morning he awoke and saw a smiling face watching him. He jumped, instantly remembering Fubuki. But this face was too furry to belong to Fubuki. It was orange too.

Rubbing his eyes he grabbed a hold of the thing and read the tag that Fubuki had left on it.

_To Ryo, an offering to gain your friendship. Or should I say a token._

He stared down in disbelief at the cuddly toy Scapegoat Token that it was attached to. Only Fubuki would sneak into your room at the dead of night to leave a cuddly toy on your pillow.

Placing the thing to aside, Ryo thought that he'd wait until he'd received the other three tokens before he took Fubuki up on that offer. Because he could be difficult too.


End file.
